Gem of the Ocean is slated to run at the Geary Theater Feb. 10-March 12, 2006 featuring A.C.T. core acting company members Steven Anthony Jones and Gregory Wallace.
Santiago-Hudson earned a Tony Award for his featured turn in Seven Guitars. The actor has also appeared in Jelly’s Last Jam and in the title role of Henry VIII for the 1997 New York Shakespeare Festival production. He recently adapted his Obie-Award winning one-man play Lackawanna Blues for HBO. George C. Wolfe directed the film starring S. Epatha Merkerson, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Jimmy Smits, Rosie Perez and the scribe himself.
The 39th anniversary season at the California company's Geary Theater will also with feature a new A Christmas Carol adaptation written by A.C.T. artistic director Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh and directed by Perloff. The new take (Nov. 26-Dec. 24) on the Charles Dickens' tale will feature scenic designs from Broadway designer Thomas Lynch (A Raisin in the Sun, The Music Man), original music from composer Karl Fredrik Lundeberg and costume designs from Beaver Bauer (A.C.T.'s The Gamester).
The 2005-2006 A.C.T. season (subject to change) is as follows:
CanStage's production of the work, which Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling adapted from Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat and Diary of a Madman, and features music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Featuring a 22-person cast, 85 costumes, and a two story set, the work plays at A.C.T. following sold-out European and Canadian tours.
A fiftieth anniversary production of the Tennessee Williams drama about the former football hero drowning in his grief after losing his best friend, while his lustful wife longs to produce an heir to inherit the family fortune. A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen stars as Maggie.
David Mamet's tale of sex, love and the struggle to keep a relationship alive in a world of extramarital affairs.
Set in 1904, the play (which is first, chronologically, of his decade plays) begins on the eve of Aunt Esther's 287th birthday. When Citizen Barlow comes to her Pittsburgh's Hill District home seeking asylum, she sets him off on a spiritual journey to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of love and deception with the famously misspoken Mrs. Malaprop. The Rivals tells of a rich captain who pretends to be a poor naval officer to court a lady who does not care about wealth.
Caryl Churchill's one-act makes its west coast premiere under the direction of Anna Shapiro. The work follows what happens after a son discovers that he is one of a number of clones produced by his father.
Carey Perloff directs the William Shakespeare classic which will feature James Cromwell ("Angels in America," "Six Feet Under") in the title role of the tale of a fallen monarch and his feuding daughters. René Augesen will also appear in the production, which will mark the first time Shakespeare has been performed at the Geary Theater in ten years. Subscriptions are currently available to the season at A.C.T., 415 Geary St. in San Francisco, CA, by calling (415) 749-2228. Single tickets will be available starting July 31, with tickets for King Lear available Jan. 30, 2006. For more information, visit www.act sf.org.
